Informal Social Control Essay

Throughout this paper, I will argue that through a systematic process of connected laws and policies, concentrated incarceration formulates a cycle of harm that subdues entire disadvantaged communities. Looking at human capital, social network and social capital, family functioning, child development, and informal social control, I will discuss the ways in which zero tolerance policing has destroyed the ability of urban communities to thrive in society, essentially creating the criminals they aim to imprison. In this way, as illustrated by Randol Contreras, Paul Butler, Matt Taibbi and Todd Clear, pro-social control policy makers shape the path for coercive mobility forcing individuals into correctional institutions, and directly impacting the way their …show more content…
This process takes a toll on the community as well by damaging its informal social control which Clear says is “the most powerful source of public safety…that suppress[es] deviance” (83). Informal social control functions in two ways, that from the family level and other “strong tie” relationships and on a parochial level which includes “weak tie” relationships from jobs, church or other social groups. Informal social control is a shared sense of what is right and what is wrong, defining social expectations and public norms (84). When a family is focused on either the exit or the entrance of a family member, they lose focus on their other relationships in an effort to accommodate the changes in their home. When a number of families in a community are experiencing the same types of transformation, there is a lack of investment in other community members on a large scale (84). Therefore the neighborhood has no connection to itself. There is strength in numbers and in this situation there is a lack of numbers and a lack of